Dallas serial killer gets life in prison after pleading guilty to 4 murders

Serial killer pleads guilty, gets life in prison

The man suspected of killing four people in Dallas and Collin counties will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty.

DALLAS - A North Texas man who murdered four people - seemingly at random - in 2020 will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jeremy Harris pleaded guilty to committing four murders. This was a series of mostly random shootings that freaked people out, as someone was driving around and shooting innocent people.

In one case, he shot and killed SMU student Jaden Urrea in Downtown Dallas.

In another, he killed a man and burned down his home in Collin County.

Harris will spend the rest his life in prison, but that doesn’t reverse the trauma for the families of his victims.

Urrea loved music. The SMU student was a regular at Deep Ellum open mics.

"He wanted to be an entertainment lawyer because he loved entertaining," his mother, Patricia, recalled.

After leaving a Halloween party in 2020, the 19-year-old was randomly shot and killed on Harwood Street.

"The worst moment of my life," his mother said.

Urrea’s mother, who lives in Indiana, looked her son’s killer in his eyes and delivered a victim-impact statement after he pleaded guilty to four murders on Tuesday.

Harris will serve life in prison without parole.

"Part of the reason I wanted to be there was I was hoping he would maybe stand up and give some kind of explanation," Patricia said. "It couldn’t have been that pointless or that senseless."

She says Harris never gave an explanation.

"It was surreal thinking I’m looking into these eyes of this cold-blooded killer who seems to have no remorse, no soul," she said.

Two weeks after Harris killed Urrea, he shot and killed 36-year-old Adam Gautreau in Northwest Dallas, and then 30 minutes later, Harris shot and killed 57-year-old Kenneth Jerome Hamilton in Oak Cliff.

Days later, Harris fatally shot Blair Carter and set Carter’s Collin County house on fire.

"I hope you spend hour after hour, day after day, year after year, just crying with loneliness and frustration, and I hope you miss your freedom and your family until it hurts," Patricia said about Harris.

Urrea’s mother was flying to Dallas to visit her son the morning he was killed.

She did not learn of his death until she landed.

"I was flying in that morning just to spend a few days with him because I missed him," she recalled.

In the weeks after the random shooting, there were so many unknowns. Some of Urrea’s classmates distributed flyers, hoping for answers.

"He just loved life," his mother said.

Now, as the serial killer spends his life in jail, Urrea’s mother wonders what could have been of her son’s life.

"He loved kids, he loved babies. He always talked about, ‘Mom, I can’t wait to be a dad one day,’" she said.

After Harris’ arrest, police linked him to non-deadly drive-by shootings in Dallas, Prosper, Frisco, and Denton.